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The Unicorn: Novel with Theatrical Soul | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Leona, 7, poses inside a labyrinth installation made up of 250,000 books in London, 2012. Olivia Harris / Reuters


Cairo-It is not the first time that different types of literature are merged and we may have gotten used to such texts in poetry, songs, and others. Yet in this novel, we are facing a narration called “monodrama” … It is “The Unicorn” (Wahid al-Qarn) novel for novelist Ahmad Adel al-Kadabi published by “Ibn Roshd” house in Cairo. The novel has been written with a pragmatic language.

This writing style has imposed a different reading strategy that requires training and knowledge of different writing types, like recognizing the difference between the narrative and theatrical (drama) texts. “The Unicorn” pushes us to excel in reading.

When the reader begins reading the book, he is amazed by variety.

While the writer has chosen an exciting style in composing his text, he has expanded its volume; the book’s message would have been better addressed with a less number of papers.

“The Unicorn” is a narrative text that leads its reader to wander among many literature types. The comprehension of this book can be accomplished by increasing the intellectual energy in reading in line with the energy used by the writer while he has written his book.

The book starts by observing the trip of a troop of unicorns in the forest looking for food and water, then strictly moves to the main character “The Unicorn” that announces revolution against its old life. At this point, the writer reveals a new base strategy in his book, according to which he compares between a troop of unicorns (animals in the forest) and a group of university students.

In his strategy, the writer seeks to emphasize the resemblance between the relations existing in the social human structure and those existing in the unicorns’ troop life, which both witness an absence of the individual’s role in the group.

Kaddabi also highlights that a political background always imposes a lifestyle that turns the individual into a dependent creature in his entourage, lacking value and achievements, which prevent him from improving.

In one of its chapters, the book discusses sex as an obsession and a revenge tool used by the human being to compensate for the absence of a future vision, and for a social and political confusion.

The book also mentioned some points, which are related to Egypt’s political history but without focusing on a specific view.